Bachelor of Science in Tourism, Wildlife and Destination Management
Uganda holds half the world's mountain gorillas, the source of the Nile, ten national parks and a tourism sector that is the country's largest foreign exchange earner, and it captures a fraction of the value that destinations with less to offer capture routinely. The constraint is professional ...
Employment thesis
What this programme is designed to produce
Forward publishes the destination of every programme before you enrol. If the thesis stops holding, the programme is reviewed and, where necessary, retired. Next review: 2032.
Roles
- Tour operations manager
- destination marketing and development officer
- safari and lodge operations manager
- conservation tourism specialist
- travel product developer
- tourism policy and planning officer
- digital tourism and distribution specialist
- tourism entrepreneur
Employer types
- Tour operators and destination management companies
- safari lodges and camps
- national tourism and wildlife authorities
- conservation organisations
- Forward University · School of Hospitality
- Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume online travel platforms
- hotel groups and resorts
- international development programmes
- the graduate's own tour company or lodge
- and the graduate's own venture
- incubated through the Forward Venture Studio
Target outcomes we hold ourselves to
- This programme targets management roles in tourism enterprises and destination organisations across East Africa and internationally, and supports tourism ventures. Progression routes include the MSc in Sustainable Tourism and Conservation Economics and doctoral study.
Compulsory · The Forward Core
How the Core works →Every Forward programme, including this one, carries the same five cross-cutting requirements. They are graded, not optional.
- AI Fluency
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Ethics and African Context
- Human-Advantage Skills
- Enterprise
Includes 12 months paid work-integrated learning
Students complete COP 190 Workplace Immersion in the Year 1 recess term, COP 290 Co-operative Education Placement I (six months, paid, assessed) and COP 390 Co-operative Education Placement II (six months, paid, assessed), totalling not fewer than twelve months. Placement hosts are contracted by the Co-operative Education Office. The employer completes a structured capability assessment carrying 40 to 50 per cent of the placement mark and signs the capability claims that enter the Capability Passport. Online students are placed with accredited hosts in their own city or country under remote academic supervision, or have their existing employment accredited as the placement site under Part D4. Read the co-op commitment
Am I eligible?
Check yourself against the published requirements
7 questions written specifically for Bachelor of Science in Tourism, Wildlife and Destination Management. Every answer is checked against a requirement Forward has published, and the result tells you which page that requirement comes from. Indicative only, the admissions office decides on your full file.
What is the highest qualification you hold or are completing?
Curriculum structure
The same degree, in both pathways
Every Forward programme is published in both pathways: Path One, the term plan of two six-month terms, and Path Two, the block sequence of twelve four-week blocks. Same competencies, same assessments, same award. Toggle to see this programme in each.
Path One term plan shown
Path One · The Term Model
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 101 | AI Fluency I: How Intelligent Systems Work Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BTWD 110 | Foundations of Tourism and the Destination System Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 111 | Uganda and East Africa: Wildlife, Landscapes and Heritage Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 112 | Tour Operations Practicum I: Field Skills and Guiding Forward University · School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BTWD 113 | Tourism Economics and Data Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 102 | Quantitative Reasoning and Evidence Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BTWD 130 | Destination Marketing and Digital Distribution Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 131 | Wildlife Ecology and Conservation for Tourism Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 132 | Tour Operations Practicum II: Product Design and Costing Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BTWD 133 | Hospitality and Lodge Operations for Tourism Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| COP 190 | Workplace Immersion (4 weeks, recessterm) Performance | 0 | 0-0-0 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 201 | Ethics, Society and the African Context Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BTWD 210 | Safari, Adventure and Special Interest Tourism Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 211 | Community Based Tourism and Benefit Sharing Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 212 | Tourism Practicum III: Destination Field Project Forward University · School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BTWD 213 | Tourism Policy, Regulation and Sustainability Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 202 | Human Advantage: Argument, Writing and Teams Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| COP 290 | Co-operative Education Placement I (6 months) Performance | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| BTWD 230 | Travel Technology, Platforms and Intelligent Tourism Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 231 | Visitor Management, Safety and Crisis Response Performance | 3 | 1-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 301 | AI Fluency II: Building, Evaluating and Auditing Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| FDC 401 | /402 Capability Portfolio, Governance and Day One Block Both | 6 | 2-2-2 |
| BTWD 310 | Tourism Enterprise, Finance and Investment Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BTWD 311 | Tourism Specialisation Elective Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BTWD 312 | Tourism Capstone: Design and Launch a Real Product or Destination Plan Forward University · School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume Both | 3 | 1-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 302 | Enterprise, Employability and Financial Literacy Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| COP 390 | Co-operative Education Placement II (6 months) Performance | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| BTWD 330 | Professional Practice and Tourism Leadership Performance | 8 | 2-2-8 |
Total credit units: 132
Curriculum source
Forward University Curriculum Compendium
Assessment
Assessment follows Part E without variation. Across the programme the aggregate weighting is 35 per cent continuous assessment and built artefacts, 25 per cent authentic performance including practical examination and oral defence, 30 per cent external practitioner assessment in the final year, and not more than 40 per cent written examination in any single course. The capstone is client verified and the Day One Assessment contributes 5 per cent of the final year mark. Assessment principles. Assessment is authentic, criterion referenced and, for every capability claim above Level 2, verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer. There is no compensation between competencies: a student must master each one, Forward University · School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume and a marginal performance in one cannot be offset by strength in another. Feedback is returned quickly, within seven days of a block closing in the Block Sequence, so that it can inform the next unit. A student who does not yet meet the standard is given a further, structured attempt under Part E rather than being carried forward, which protects the value of the award while supporting progression. Reasonable adjustments for disability are made under Part D without altering the competency standard.
Work-integrated learning
Students complete COP 190 Workplace Immersion in the Year 1 recess term, COP 290 Co-operative Education Placement I (six months, paid, assessed) and COP 390 Co-operative Education Placement II (six months, paid, assessed), totalling not fewer than twelve months. Placement hosts are contracted by the Co-operative Education Office. The employer completes a structured capability assessment carrying 40 to 50 per cent of the placement mark and signs the capability claims that enter the Capability Passport. Online students are placed with accredited hosts in their own city or country under remote academic supervision, or have their existing employment accredited as the placement site under Part D4.
Your week at Forward
A typical week on Bachelor of Science in Tourism, Wildlife and Destination Management
Path One, the Term Model: your own pace across a six-month term, one live session a week, short flexible lessons, and assessment on demand.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Curriculum explorer
Drill into the degree, step by step
Choose a study path, then a year, then a term or block, then a course. Credit totals add up as you go, and every course shows what comes before it and what it unlocks.
Step 1, choose a year
Step 2, choose a term
TERM 1 (SIX MONTHS) | FORMERLY YEAR 1, SEMESTER 1 | YEAR 1 | 22
Year 1 · this step is worth 22 CU
Cumulative
22
Programme total
132
22 CU of 132 CU completed by the end of this step (17%)
Step 3, choose a course
Pick a course to see the detail
Credits, assessment, prerequisites and what each course unlocks later.
The twelve Forward capabilities
What this programme develops in you
Every Forward degree develops the same twelve cross-cutting capabilities. The profile below is the level this programme is designed to develop and verify by graduation, on the four-level scale in Part B2 of the Curriculum Compendium. Every claim above Level 2 is verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer.
- C1Intelligent Systems FluencyLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C2Quantitative and Evidential ReasoningLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C3Ethical and Contextual JudgementLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C4Communication and Persuasion CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C5Disciplinary Mastery CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C6Technical Production and CraftLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C7Problem Framing and Systems ThinkingLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C8Collaboration and Multidisciplinary TeamingLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C9Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C10Professional Conduct and Workplace PerformanceLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C11Learning to Learn and Adaptive CapacityLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C12Stewardship and Public Contribution CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
Critical capabilities for this programme: Communication and Persuasion · Disciplinary Mastery · Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy · Stewardship and Public Contribution. A graduate cannot pass out of this programme below the stated level on any capability marked critical.
Programme Learning Outcomes
What you will be able to do
Each outcome is assessed, and each is tagged with the Forward capabilities it is verified against.
- PLO 1Analyse a destination as a system of attractions, access, enterprises, communities and ecology.
- PLO 2Design, cost and operate tour products and safari itineraries to international standard.
- PLO 3Market and distribute a destination or product in domestic and international markets, including digital channels.
- PLO 4Apply conservation economics and wildlife ol of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and management to tourism decisions.
- PLO 5Manage the guest experience and safety in field and wilderness settings.
- PLO 6Work with communities so that tourism benefits them and secures their support.
- PLO 7Apply data and intelligent tools to demand, pricing and visitor management.
- PLO 8Apply tourism policy, regulation and sustainability standards to practice.
- PLO 9Cost, pitch and defend a tourism venture or destination investment.
- PLO 10Acquire and demonstrate a new capability without formal instruction, evidenced in the Capability Passport.
Why this programme exists
Uganda holds half the world's mountain gorillas, the source of the Nile, ten national parks and a tourism sector that is the country's largest foreign exchange earner, and it captures a fraction of the value that destinations with less to offer capture routinely. The constraint is professional capacity: too few people who can design, market, operate and sustain destinations and tourism enterprises to international standard while protecting the wildlife and communities the industry depends on. This programme builds that professional, uniting tourism business, conservation economics, wildlife and safari operations and destination marketing, with fieldwork in the parks and paid co-op in tour operators, lodges and destination organisations from the first year.
Admission requirements
Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education with two principal passes; plus Uganda Certificate of Education with five passes including English and Mathematics. Applicants additionally complete a structured service scenario and reasoning task at admission, scored against Capabilities C4 and C10, and a short interview conducted by a practitioner. Equivalent international qualifications, and Forward College hospitality and culinary diplomas with advanced standing, are assessed against this profile. All applicants must demonstrate competence in English, the language of instruction, through their qualifications or an approved proficiency test under Part A. International and non standard qualifications are assessed for equivalence against the profile above under the Credential Portability provisions, so that a suitably prepared applicant may enter from anywhere in the world. Selection considers the whole application, including the structured admission task, and is conducted without discrimination under the University's admissions policy. Alternative pathways: Foundation Year, diploma entry with advanced standing, mature age entry and recognition of prior learning, all governed by Part A5 and Part G. Online applicants additionally complete the compulsory Digital Readiness orientation under Part D6.
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